Durban – Staff on a small farm in the Shongweni area of KwaZulu-Natal discovered a 2.2m male black mamba in a storeroom on Thursday.
Snake catcher Nick Evans said he often receives call outs to the farm for black mambas.
“Again, there was one popping in to say hi to some of the staff. It was curled up on top of the wall, against the roof sheeting, of a storeroom.
“I often catch mambas here, in buildings like this. Safe, warm, and there's bound to be a rat or two around for it,” he said.
Evans was accompanied and assisted by friends Euan Genevier and Craig Cordier.
He said he climbed a ladder to get to the snake and the mamba tried squeezing further into the tight space it was in.
“It was hard to get a good grip on it but eventually, after some poking and prodding, I got it to come out a bit, and I pinned it down against a beam,” he said.
Evans said the male mamba was 2.2 metres.
“I know it won't be the last I catch there. Shongweni really is a beautiful area, but with all the nice natural habitat, there's plenty of nice snakes too.”
Meanwhile, Evans said he caught a couple of gravid (pregnant) black mambas this season.
“We let the mothers lay, then release them. That’s because most of the time, I catch them where they are just about to lay. For example, in someone's retaining wall. In the wild they'd leave their eggs, well, most of them (pythons and skaapstekers remain with their eggs),” he said.
He said the latest clutch is from a 2.5 metre black mamba.
“She laid 13, including one infertile egg. The eggs are over 6 cm in length and 3 cm in width. Large eggs!”
He also pointed out that the eggs were stuck together.
“All snake eggs are like that. People often find round eggs in piles of sand or compost, not joined together.
“Those are usually Agama (Blue-headed lizard) eggs. In 2-3 months time, they'll hatch. They’ll have the same venom as their parents, so one can't exactly play with them.” he said.
Evans said he would would release the snakes soon after hatching.
